According to CNet News, Apple's inquiry is leading to an investigation to be headed by a Santa Clara County, Ca. computer crime task force that goes by the catchy nomenclature REACT, which stands for Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team. REACT was set up in 1997 with the goal of aiding Valley tech companies with computer related criminal issues.

CNet reports that Gizmodo, or even the person responsible for selling the prototype to the site, could possibly be charged under a California statute by which any person who finds lost property and knows who the owner is likely to be, but "appropriates such property to his own use," is guilty of theft. If the value of the property exceeds $400, charges of grand theft may be filed.

The law goes on to say that anyone "who appropriates such property to his own use, or to the use of another person not entitled thereto, without first making reasonable and just efforts to find the owner," is guilty of theft (emphasis added). According to the story as told by Gizmodo, this might be the sticking point for making the case ... stick. As Gizmodo tells it, the person who found the phone and later sold it to the website called Apple in an effort to inquire about the phone. The company purportedly never got back to him (or her). Would this be enough of a "reasonable effort" to avoid the criminal charge? And what did Gizmodo do in attempts to give back the phone that launched a thousand blog posts?

A further twist is supplied by some of the First Amendment protections afforded a free press. As CNet writes, the U.S. Supreme Court case of Bartnicki v. Vopper found in 2001 that information leaked to a news organization could be legally "published." However, the questions of whether "information" could include physical property like a phone, or even if an iPhone prototype is the matter of great "public concern" discussed under the ruling, remain.

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